Bologna: kids-rights talk
BolognaBookPlus opened with a seminar focused on licensing and rights for children’s books, covering options, shopping agreements and the so-called “great divide” in rights negotiations. (publishingperspectives.com) Agents and rights directors at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair are also tracking whether romantasy remains dominant in YA deals and whether middle-grade is resurging. (publishersweekly.com)
At the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, rights professionals opened the week by drilling into how children’s books are sold, licensed, and adapted across markets. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com) BolognaBookPlus scheduled its rights training, “How to Sell Rights and Understand Licensing in Children’s Books,” for Sunday, April 12, one day before the fair’s April 13 opening in Bologna. The session was billed for publishers, agents, and rights staff looking to expand international business. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com) In publishing, “rights” means the permission to publish or reuse a book in another form or territory: another language, another country, audio, merchandising, or screen. Bologna is built around that trade, with roughly 1,500 exhibitors from 90 countries expected at the 63rd fair from April 13 to 16. (publishersweekly.com) The fair combines three businesses under one roof: the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, BolognaBookPlus for general trade publishing, and the Bologna Licensing Trade Fair for Kids for brands and properties aimed at children, teens, and young adults. Fair organizers describe that structure as a response to a more interconnected publishing market. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com, bolognachildrensbookfair.com) That is why terms like “option” and “shopping agreement” are getting stage time. An option usually gives a producer or buyer an exclusive window to acquire rights later, while a shopping agreement usually gives someone time to pitch a project without buying the rights up front. (odinlaw.com) Agents and rights directors arriving in Bologna said the current market is split between durable commercial categories and a harder sell for other work. Erica Rand Silverman of Stimola Literary Studio said award-winning United States titles and some backlist picture books are drawing interest abroad, while picture books remain tougher to sell internationally overall. (publishersweekly.com) On young adult lists, romantasy is still generating requests, but Alessandra Birch of Writers House said the category is dominated by a few major authors and is harder for new projects to break into. She said scouts and editors are also asking for near-future dystopia, fantasy-thriller blends, and horror. (publishersweekly.com) In middle grade, Birch said publishers are buying short illustrated series, often at 30,000 words or less, with humorous plots and doodle-style art. The same conversations are extending into graphic novels, where she said buyers want commercial, high-concept stories and art that feels like a bridge from picture books. (publishersweekly.com) Export economics are also hanging over the meetings. Birch said growing English-language export sales are eroding translation sales, which in turn is leading some translation publishers to make lower offers or no offers at all. (publishersweekly.com) BolognaBookPlus itself is expanding as it tries to capture more of that business. Now in its sixth year, the program added new professional tracks in 2026, including a Designer Studio and WritersLab, alongside a second Artificial Intelligence Summit on April 14. (publishersweekly.com) So the opening rights talk landed at the center of the fair’s actual business: who controls a children’s story, who gets to sell it across borders and formats, and which categories still attract buyers in April 2026. (publishersweekly.com, publishersweekly.com)
